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integrate: to unite, unify, bring together, make whole, complete
Over thirty-five years ago, Dr. Peter Bernstein set out to find a therapy that worked - that provided real healing and real results, without drugs - for people in pain. His journey took him to juvenile detention facilities, graduate school, hospitals, drug and alcohol clinics, doctoral studies, and private practice. He studied Reichian psychotherapy, numerous counseling and group therapies, nutrition, alternative medicine, detoxification, myofascial release physical therapy, and team treatment. From a quest that started with caring for people and a desire to bring healing into their lives, Dr. Bernstein has now established the Bernstein Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy.
Dr. Bernstein's methods of Integrative Psychotherapy are the crystallization of his training, depth and range of experience, interdisciplinary approach, and his unswerving commitment to real, practical results without the use of drugs. Dr. Bernstein's integrative approach to psychotherapy addresses and resolves the core issues of emotional and physical trauma. Every patient at the Bernstein Institute experiences the personal care of Dr. Bernstein and his staff, along with a customized treatment plan drawn from a broad spectrum of resources.
Foundational to the Bernstein Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy is the treatment Dr. Bernstein pioneered from the two dominant disciplines of his career: Reichian psychotherapy and myofascial release physical therapy. This unique treatment is Reichian-Myofascial Release Therapy, and it combines the best practices of Reichian psychotherapy and myofascial release physical therapy to produce truly effective, life-changing results in patients' lives.
Reichian psychotherapy is a proven psychological protocol that utilizes both conversation and body work to resolve emotional trauma. Myofascial release is a highly effective form of physical therapy that uses physical manipulation techniques to unwind and release tissues distorted by trauma. Bodies distorted by trauma abound in symptoms such as uneven shoulders, misaligned hips, stiff necks and backs, tense jaws, and shallow breathing from tight chests. Until recently, it wasn't fully appreciated that these symptoms could be the result of both emotional as well as physical trauma.
Though Reichian psychotherapy often includes some elements similar to physical therapy such as cranial-sacral manipulation, these techniques fall short of the comprehensive full-body approach of myofascial release physical therapy. Reichian-Myofascial Release Therapy is unique in that combining both therapies achieves results unobtainable when the protocols are employed independently.
Reichian-Myofascial Release Therapy sessions combine counseling with myofascial release techniques and unwinding, the latter consisting of gentle, physical manipulation of the twisted fascia while the therapist slowly and continuously guides the patient's body to unwind. Patient feedback is essential to the treatment. The patient's body often spontaneously suggests the ways it wants to release tension and return to its natural state. Since unwinding the fascia also releases memories of past emotional trauma, the patient experiences relief that leads to emotional as well as physical healing.
Since Dr. Peter Bernstein began combining Reichian psychotherapy with myofascial release physical therapy, scores of his patients have unlocked long-buried psychological trauma, while experiencing relief from physical pain and the release of emotional tension.
Why are these distinctly different therapies, developed continents and years apart, so complementary? The answer begins with the work of Dr. Wilhelm Reich and his theory about the balance between stress and relaxation.
Reich was a pioneer in the study of bioenergy and its relation to emotional trauma. He was the first to propose that psychological and emotional pain could cause an individual to create a kind of physical block to protect them from experiencing the pain. Reich called these blocks armoring.
Unpleasant events in our lives trigger the well known "fight or flight" reflex. Repeated exposure to such trauma physically hardens the victim to the pain. Reich termed this phenomenon "armoring". Armoring is often demonstrated in a tightened jaw, a stiff neck and shallow breathing caused by a tight chest. It can also be seen in other segments of the body.
When continued over an extended period, armoring prevents the body from recuperating from the stress of the trauma. Reich coined the term pulsation for the necessary and natural alternation between tension caused by stress and the release that comes from relaxation. Furthermore, he surmised that when the body is prevented from "pulsating", the result is lasting physical as well as emotional damage.
In other words, armoring results in chronically constricted muscles, which limit the flow of blood to both muscles and organs, depriving the cellular tissue of oxygen and nutrients, leading to a host of diseases - all which can be traced to the emotional trauma that triggered the armoring. Traditional Reichian psychotherapy uses a number of tools to break down armoring to restore the natural pulsation and thereby restore the patient's physical and emotional well-being. Among these tools are conversation, breathwork and body manipulation.
The term myofascia comes from the combination of "myo", the Greek word for muscle, with "fascia", a sheet of fibrous tissue beneath the skin that permeates the body.
The fascia is a multi-layered matrix of tough, fibrous connective tissue that sheaths and supports all of the human body's organs, muscles and bones. Nerves and blood vessels pass through layer after layer of fascia as they travel throughout the body. Fascia interconnects the body from head to foot with a web that extends all directions to accommodate the infinite variations in the body's muscle bulk and movement.
Because of its poor blood supply, damaged and constricted fascia heals very slowly. Ironically, though the fascia has poor circulation, it has a rich supply of nerve endings so that any damage to it produces a high level of pain.
In addition to causing the fascia to shrink, repeated trauma creates adhesions where the fascia become stuck together, even further constricting the encased muscles and organs. Fascia is estimated to have a tensile strength of 2000 pounds per square inch. Therefore, when damaged fascial tissue constricts and loses its elasticity, the fascia's enormous tensile strength can literally twist the human body out of its natural state.
Not only is damage to fascia painful, the resulting constriction reduces blood circulation to the encased tissue, which often leads to serious physical complications. Releasing the pressure by stretching the fascia improves both blood flow and nervous system transmission to the constrained tissue while reducing pain and enhancing the body's ability to heal. Practitioners of myofascial release physical therapy refer to the release of myofascial torsion as unwinding.
It is highly common for an unwinding session to trigger an emotional as well as physical release, during which patients often recall the traumas that damaged the fascia. When he realized that myofascial unwinding not only loosened the taught muscles, but also released backed-up emotional tension, Dr. Bernstein decided to combine the two therapies into a unique practice.
At this point it should be clear that the body's tendency to armor itself against trauma distorts and damages fascial tissue. In effect, the body records the results of emotional and physical trauma. The body remembers the trauma as the mind remembers feelings and experiences. By combining traditional Reichian psychotherapy techniques of counseling, breathwork, and physical manipulation with myofascial release physical therapy, Dr. Bernstein is able to help patients uncover and resolve issues far more effectively than by using either therapy independently.
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